From

Thank you

Sorry

Buried in a press release saying that it was considering an acquisition of search technology vendor Autonomy (which it later said it would in fact buy) and exploring the possible spinout of its PC business, today Hewlett-Packard confirmed it is discontinuing its WebOS-based TouchPad tablet line and its series of WebOS-based smartphones such as the Pre and Pixi. HP completed its acqusition of WebOS creator Palm just 13 months ago.

The statement read, "HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for WebOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and WebOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of WebOS software going forward."

InfoWorld executive editor Galen Gruman analyzes the latest issues in mobile technology and the consumerization of IT. His latest book is "iPad at Work for Dummies"; Gruman has written or co-written more than 40 how-to books, on iOS, iPad, Windows 8, OS X, and desktop publishing.